


200

by red_scully



Category: The Big Bang Theory (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-12
Updated: 2016-06-12
Packaged: 2018-07-14 17:27:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7183292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/red_scully/pseuds/red_scully
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sheldon deserved more than just a hug on his birthday. Post-episode for The Celebration Experimentation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	200

It was gone 11pm by the time the party cleared out, ending with Barry and Beverley staggering drunkenly off together to catch an Uber to her hotel. Howard and Bernadette had left early after she got one of her bouts of evening morning sickness, and Leonard and Raj were driving Adam West home. The apartment was a mess, with streamers and paper plates scattered around the place haphazardly and far too many half-consumed beverages on every surface.

Penny was stood at the sink washing dishes. She was humming to herself, humming a song he couldn't recognise - probably due to his own lack of musical knowledge rather than her ability to carry a tune. He leaned against the wall and allowed himself a moment to watch her as she worked, oblivious to his eyes on the smooth skin of her back, the soft swish of her hips when she moved to grab a cup from the counter, the graceful line of her calves.

After several lingering minutes, she turned and saw him looking at her. He dragged his eyes from her body, feeling a hot blush suddenly climb into his cheeks, and tried to feign a yawn.

"Hey, sweetie. You can go on to bed. I'll clean up," she said with a 1000-watt smile, drying her hands on a tea towel and apparently unaware of his roaming eyes. She picked up a garbage bag and started filling it, picking up detritus from the coffee table.

Sheldon shook his head. "No, I'll help. Besides, you're bound to do it wrong," he drawled, busying himself with the Happy Birthday banner which was hanging from the ceiling by one corner, the jaunty angle giving it an air of whimsy. Penny shrugged.

"Suit yourself."

They worked in silence for a while, the shape of the apartment slowly reappearing from underneath the layers of party attire. He started filling a bag with recyclables when she asked the question he'd been avoiding.

"Where's Amy?"

He froze. She was over by the bookshelf with a cloth, standing with her back to him, and it took several seconds before she seemed to sense his pause and looked round. This wasn't a conversation he wanted to have at all, but he couldn't resist her when she had been so kind to him all evening, and he knew she would never leave it alone.

"Amy went home. We had, uh, a bit of a disagreement and she didn't want to stay overnight." The bag of bottles suddenly felt heavy in his hands.

Eyebrows raised, Penny put a hand on her hip. "Seriously? She's been talking about tonight all week. She was so excited about spending the night here. Is everything ok?"

When he didn't answer immediately, she narrowed her eyes, but before she could press him further they were interrupted by the loud, insistent beep of her cell phone. She dropped her wash cloth and unearthed the phone from between the sofa cushions. Grateful for the distraction, Sheldon resumed collecting empties, but his relief was short-lived when Penny took a sharp intake of breath and he knew Amy had texted her about their quarrel.

"Wow. I guess I'm not Amy's favourite person right now, huh?" She held the phone up so he could see the message, a typo-riddled rant in which she accused Penny of stepping on her toes by going to check on Sheldon in the bathroom, of stealing her thunder by hugging him when he wouldn't even hold her hand all night, and of generally ruining her evening by generally doing all the things Amy felt it was her right to do as his girlfriend. He scrolled to the end of the message and wordlessly handed the phone back, not meeting her gaze.

"Is she right? Did I cross a line tonight?" The cleaning apparently forgotten now, she sat heavily down on the couch, her thigh, he noticed, grazing the edge of his spot. The smile she'd worn all evening was gone, replaced with a look of anxiety which filled him with a sudden and unexpected wave of sadness. He placed the last bottle into the bag and tied it neatly closed, placing it beside the other bags in the kitchen. Sitting in his spot would involve being far too physically close to her right now, and he didn't know if he had the ability to handle that, so he approached her gingerly and hovered by the coffee table.

"I believe that Amy is reacting inappropriately, not you. You are my friend, Penny, and this evening, when I felt overwhelmed, you took care of me. I wouldn't have been able to come out of the bathroom without your help. Amy should be thanking you for being so kind to me, don't you think?"

She craned her neck to gaze up at him, twisting her hands together. "I guess so. And it's hardly a secret that you and I are close. I don't know why she's suddenly so upset. You'd think she'd never seen me hug you before. It's hardly like the hug was inappropriate. You didn't even grab my ass." It took him a moment to realise that this was a joke, and even as he returned the grin that had mercifully returned to her face, he felt suddenly very hot at the idea of groping her in such a way, and at the thought that she was thinking about it too, even in the context of a joke. His palms were suddenly sweating.

He felt another question hanging in the air, and realised it was now or never: they wouldn't be alone for more than another hour or so. "Penny, I couldn't help but notice that although you did give me that hug, you didn't actually say anything about how great you think I am."

Her turn to pause: It was brief, but he saw it. She was pondering how to answer, turning her phone over and over in her hands as her gaze flitted around the empty apartment. Just when he thought she was going to get up and leave, she patted the cushion beside her. "Ok, sit down." He did so, her thigh warmly pressed into his as he knew it would, wanting to ask her to move but unsure how to do it without betraying his secrets to her as they threatened to bubble up to the surface. This close to her, he could smell her shampoo, that green apple Target own brand stuff which he had come to associate so strongly with her that when he once smelled it on a stranger he felt utterly confused. The smell of Penny had a primal effect on him. Right now the urge to wrap himself around her was powerful, and he took a deep breath.

Placing her phone on the coffee table, she turned to face him. Her thigh shifted and rubbed along his. He repressed a shiver as she began to speak.

"Sheldon, I told you earlier that there was a time I would never have been friends with someone like you. Meeting you changed my life in more ways than I can count. You are my best friend. Knowing you makes me a better person: I am kinder, more patient, more compassionate and more able to understand other people. Before I met you, I thought socially awkward people needed to get over themselves. Now I see how much you struggle, and all I want to do is scoop you up and make it all better. I hate how hard your life has been because of people who act like I used to, who torture you and mock you."

She paused to lift her hair away from her neck briefly, then continued, her eyes meeting his. "Amy said her greatest gift was you being born, but I don't think she gives you enough credit. You were born a genius, but I love you because of the person you have grown into. You work hard every day to fit into a world you find confusing and alarming. I am so proud of you for how far you've come, as my friend, as Amy's boyfriend, as a friend to Howard - you have put in more effort over the years than anyone ever acknowledges.

"My greatest gift, Sheldon, has been the opportunity to watch you grow over the past nine years. I can't imagine not having you in my life. And if that comes across as inappropriate then Amy and her insecurities can fuck off."

She took his hands in hers, then, her eyes twinkling as she smiled. "Happy birthday, Sheldon. I love you, sweetie."

She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, a chaste and friendly gesture. She went to pull away, but something snapped inside him, the control ebbing away as her words swirled in his mind like a growing hurricane and created a vortex of desire, and his arms were around her to draw her close again, pulling her into a hug. Her head went to his shoulder and he thought this would be fine, it was still an innocent gesture, but his hands were irresistibly drawn to the smooth skin of her shoulders, his fingertips skimming her warm back. He felt her stiffen slightly in his arms at this unexpectedly intimate move, but she didn't say anything, just tightened her arms around his waist as he explored the nape of her neck, moved a hand into her hair, and slid the other to her waist. Oh god, he wanted to kiss her: that feeling he denied for years, which had been filled recently by the developments in his relationship with Amy; it was springing back to life, and he felt it in every nerve ending in his body. Of course she chose that exact moment to pull backwards and look at him, and he couldn't help it, couldn't stop himself any longer, and his lips were on hers and her tongue was in his mouth and one of her hands snaked between them to play with the neckline of his shirt and it was happening, deep and sweet and slow.

She was so different from Amy, more forceful, yet gentler; her hands roamed more freely and he felt possessed by the desire to have her and take her and feel her, a sharp contrast to the nervous way he always advanced things when making out with his girlfriend. He heard himself moan as she touched him. What was it about Penny that made him this way? He was trying to find the trigger, to identify the source of her power over him, but it was getting harder to focus: her lips were on his neck, now, her hands worrying the waistband of his pants, and it all blurred together in a way it never had before. Her voice in his ear, her hands on his thighs, her green apple hair damp with sweat and swinging against his cheek as she moved over him, and now the give of a mattress beneath his back: he wanted to remember it, all of it, but that would involve stopping to commit it all to memory, and he was far too busy just being in the moment, giving in to his most deeply hidden desires, giving in to her as she gave him the most secret pieces of herself. This, he thought vaguely as he moved within her, her hands pressing urgently into his shoulders: This, you, us, all of it is my greatest gift.


End file.
